Sarasamsara: Like Austen's novels, The Makioka Sisters traces the daily lives and romances of an upper-class family-- the only difference is that this is pre-war Japan, not Regency England. Like in one of Austen's works, when you close the novel you feel like you are closing the door on someone's life.… (more)

nessreader: Both Emma and Miss M are about ambitious, capable upper class women who can only express themselves as social hostesses. Both heroines are managing and bossy - Miss M, a generation younger, is played more for laughs, but there is a strong parallel. And both end in utter satisfaction for heroine and reader alike.… (more)

kara.shamy: In some ways the heroines in these two novels are alike, but they are very different in other respects, and more strikingly, their respective journeys to the altar/married life go in diametrically opposite ways, in a sense! Both are true classics in my estimation; reading these two novels exposes the reader to two of the greatest English-language novelists of all time in the height of their respective powers. While all readers and critics do not and will not share this superlative view, few would dispute these are two early female masters of the form and are well worth a read on that humbler basis ;) Enjoy!… (more)

Emma tells the tale of Emma Woodhouse, a woman of means, who is an unrelenting matchmaker in early 19th century England. Emma, the sole caretaker of her father, spends her time trying to set people up, often with disastrous results.

Emma, published in 1815, is a Comedy of Errors novel. This type of novel satirizes a particular class of people. In the case of this novel, it is the gentry of 19th century rural England. Comedies of Errors tend to have stereotypical characters. Two that appear in Emma are the fop, someone who is overly concerned with his appearance, and the rake, someone who is a heartless womanizer. We see these two characters in Mr. Elton and Frank Churchill (though Frank may not be as heartless as he appears).

Jane Austen wrote Emma with the intention of creating a main character who no one would like. Emma at first appears to be frivolous and interfering. However, through the novel, we actually see Emma evolve into a much more mature character who recognizes her faults and shortcomings. The character of Emma was a departure for Austen, in the fact that Emma was not worried about income. Also, the character of Mr. Knightley is someone Emma has always known, as opposed to Austen’s other novels.

Emma has always been one of my favorite novels. It strikes me as being more similar to the modern world than Austen’s other novels. I have always loved Mr. Knightley’s character, almost more than Mr. Darcy in Pride & Prejudice. It is a novel I read again and again, never tiring of the different adventures Emma finds herself in.( )

Boo on this one. I can't believe Emma is a classic. If there were soap operas in the 19th century, this would have made an excellent teleplay for one. There were no noble characters; all were rich gossips overly concerned with complexions, tea time and the weather. Everyone was so afraid of being sick because of drafts, rain, lack of good air, etc.. Also annoying was the tedious length it took someone to express a thought (and not a very worthwhile thought at that). What could be expressed in one sentence took about three paragraphs. Emma was a rich, spoiled busybody who constantly tried to play matchmaker, and she was horrible at it. That's the basic story. Not worth reading. I was going to read some more Jane Austen but I think I need a break for now. ( )

I must have read this book at least half a dozen times in the last 25 years, and I still love it. And I still can't read the Box Hill scene without cringing. I must say, though, that I am beginning to doubt Emma's and Mr. Knightley's long-term prospects. He is always correcting her -- isn't that going to drive her crazy after a while? And he is far too old for her. ( )

I can say that I'm very glad to have finished this book. Before reading it, I've heard praises of it being 'Jane's best work' and so I guess I should be forgiven if I began reading it with extremely high hopes, being a fan of Jane's work.However, I have to admit that I was a bit disappointed. Sure, I sort of had a liking to Mr Knightley, (as probably was to be expected), but I felt that the storyline dragged on a bit. Though I must say I prefer Emma to Wuthering Heights due to the surprises towards the end.On a more personal note, (*RANT ALERT*) I think I've finally found why I like classics so much. Other than the obvious of the men being gentlemen, I think it's the fact that courtship was so simple back then. When you fall in love with someone, you pursued them. If affections were returned, the next step would be to plan marriage; and cheating was an abomination. In a world and time where cheating (not just physically, but mentally and emotionally) is so common that it's considered 'normal' today, I find solace in classics. Or maybe I'm just a bitter bitch because I get cheated on so often for being too nice and too understanding. Ah well. ( )

Well, Ms. Austen completely succeeds in her efforts to create a heroine that you both like and want to strangle at the same time (if indeed that was her design). Given the complete mess she makes playing with those around her, Emma hardly deserves to have anything go well for herself, yet I was cheering for her just the same.

I found the book to be a bit long, and the dialog many times so tiresome I actually yelled at the speakers to "shut up!" (listening to audio edition) but the narration was outstanding, and for anyone looking for a good audio version of the book, I can recommend this one without reservation.

Needless to say, this will remain at the bottom of my Jane Austen rankings and Pride and Prejudice will remain firmly at the top. ( )

“Perhaps the key to Emma’s perfection, however, is that it is a comic novel, written in a mode that rarely gets much respect. It’s exquisitely ironic.”

“The presiding message of the novel is that we must forgive Emma for her shortcomings just as she can and does learn to excuse the sometimes vexing people around her. There is, I believe, more wisdom in that than in many, many more portentous and ambitious novels. Emma is flawed, but ‘Emma’ is flawless."

It’s a small but striking and instructive demonstration, the careful way Emma appraises the character of the various men who jockey for her attentions and those of the women around her. We could all learn from her example.

"In January 1814, Jane Austen sat down to write a revolutionary novel. Emma, the book she composed over the next year, was to change the shape of what is possible in fiction."

"The novel’s stylistic innovations allow it to explore not just a character’s feelings, but, comically, her deep ignorance of her own feelings. "

"Those who condemn the novel by saying that its heroine is a snob miss the point. Of course she is. But Austen, with a refusal of moralism worthy of Flaubert, abandons her protagonist to her snobbery and confidently risks inciting foolish readers to think that the author must be a snob too"

Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition, seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence; and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her.

Deemed her finest and most representative novel by many modern readers, Emma was something of a mystery to Austen's contemporaries when it appeared in 1816. (Introduction)

The drama and the comedy of Austen's novels are dependent on a sharp awareness of fine social distinctions. (Appendix A: Rank and Social Status)

Whether it took place in private houses, or at public assemblies held at inns or purpose-built assembly rooms, social dancing in polite society was governed in Austen's time by strict rules of etiquette, the broad outlines of which dated back to Beau Nash's 'Rules to be observ'd at Bath' of 1706. (Appendix B: Dancing)

Quotations

Silly things do cease to be silly if they are done by sensible people in an impudent way.

"I thank you; but I assure you, you are quite mistaken. Mr. Elton and I are very good friends, and nothing more, and she walked on, amusing herself in the consideration of the blunders which often arise from a partial knowledge of circumstances, of the mistakes which people of high pretensions to judgment are for every falling into..." (Emma)

"I always deserve the best treatment because I never put up with any other."

Seldom, very seldom, does complete truth belong to any human disclosure.

I have seen a great many lists of her drawing up at various times of books that she meant to read regularly through--and very good books they were--very well chosen and very neatly arranged--sometimes alphabetically and sometimes by some other rule.

How often is happiness destroyed by preparation, foolish preparation? (Frank Weston Churchill)

Oh! The blessing of a female correspondent when one is really interested in the absent! (Frank Weston Churchill)

"I cannot make speeches, Emma...If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more." (Mr. Knightley)

It will be natural for me...to speak my opinion aloud as I read. (Mr. Knightley)

These matters are always a secret till it is found out that everybody knows them. (Mr. Weston)

One half of the world cannot understand the pleasures of the other.

Last words

But, in spite of these deficiencies, the wishes, the hopes, the confidence, the predictions of the small band of true friends who witnessed the ceremony, were fully answered in the perfect happiness of the union.

Wikipedia in English (1)

Emma is perhaps too accustomed to thinking of herself as the queen of her genteel Surrey village. Petted by her invalidish father and her former governess, idolised by old Mrs Bates and her garrulous, good-hearted daughter, she finds only Mr Knightley ready - too ready - to criticise her. He deprecates her schemes for the pretty foundling Harriet and her coolness towards the elegant, reserved Jane Fairfax. And, unaccountably, he seems to disapprove of the handsome Frank Churchill... With cheerful self-confidence Emma interferes in the lives and loves of all her circle. A plot as intricate as a classic detective story leaves the reader as astonished as its heroine when the true state of affairs is revealed. She arrives, almost too late, at a self-knowledge which humbles her considerably. This masterpiece of social observation and comic plotting offers inexhaustible pleasure, laughter and enlightenment.

Of all Jane Austen's heroines, Emma Woodhouse is the most flawed, the most infuriating, and, in the end, the most endearing. Pride and Prejudice's Lizzie Bennet has more wit and sparkle; Catherine Morland in Northanger Abbey more imagination; and Sense and Sensibility's Elinor Dashwood certainly more sense--but Emma is lovable precisely because she is so imperfect. Austen only completed six novels in her lifetime, of which five feature young women whose chances for making a good marriage depend greatly on financial issues, and whose prospects if they fail are rather grim. Emma is the exception: "Emma Woodhouse, handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence; and had lived nearly twenty-one years in the world with very little to distress or vex her." One may be tempted to wonder what Austen could possibly find to say about so fortunate a character. The answer is, quite a lot.

For Emma, raised to think well of herself, has such a high opinion of her own worth that it blinds her to the opinions of others. The story revolves around a comedy of errors: Emma befriends Harriet Smith, a young woman of unknown parentage, and attempts to remake her in her own image. Ignoring the gaping difference in their respective fortunes and stations in life, Emma convinces herself and her friend that Harriet should look as high as Emma herself might for a husband--and she zeroes in on an ambitious vicar as the perfect match. At the same time, she reads too much into a flirtation with Frank Churchill, the newly arrived son of family friends, and thoughtlessly starts a rumor about poor but beautiful Jane Fairfax, the beloved niece of two genteelly impoverished elderly ladies in the village. As Emma's fantastically misguided schemes threaten to surge out of control, the voice of reason is provided by Mr. Knightly, the Woodhouse's longtime friend and neighbor. Though Austen herself described Emma as "a heroine whom no one but myself will much like," she endowed her creation with enough charm to see her through her most egregious behavior, and the saving grace of being able to learn from her mistakes. By the end of the novel Harriet, Frank, and Jane are all properly accounted for, Emma is wiser (though certainly not sadder), and the reader has had the satisfaction of enjoying Jane Austen at the height of her powers. --Alix Wilber

Emma Woodhouse is one of Austen's most captivating and vivid characters. Beautiful, spoilt, vain and irrepressibly witty, Emma organizes the lives of the inhabitants of her sleepy little village and plays matchmaker with devastating effect.